Category: Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): More Than ‘Winter Blues’
“Research indicates that daylight saving time can increase the symptoms of seasonal depression for some people.” This discovery is unfortunate since daylight saving time occurs throughout the majority of the U.S. and Canada.
Seasonal depression, also known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), is a “type of depression related to changes in seasons.” Typically symptoms begin in autumn and continue through winter. Even when people are aware of SAD, too many people chalk up their symptoms to “winter blues” and refrain from actively addressing those symptoms, which only increases the length and severity.
Signs & Symptoms of SAD
The Mayo Clinic lists signs and symptoms of SAD as follows:
- Feeling depressed most of the day, nearly every day
- Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
- Having low energy
- Having problems with sleeping
- Experiencing changes in your appetite or weight
- Feeling sluggish or agitated
- Having difficulty concentrating
- Feeling hopeless, worthless or guilty
- Having frequent thoughts of death or suicide
The Cleveland Clinic reports, “approximately half a million people in the United States suffer from winter SAD… three-quarters of the sufferers are women,
